


Cat Scratch Fever

by cloudyTomboy



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Other, cursegender ranma, neko ken, this touches on sex-pollen / heat / dubcon things but there's not gonna be any sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 05:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18025580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudyTomboy/pseuds/cloudyTomboy
Summary: Ranma wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night and the world is brighter and louder and dense with new smells. The neko-ken is ready to reveal its secrets, and Ranma is along for the ride.





	Cat Scratch Fever

There was something wrong with her. Even in her half-sleep Ranma noticed it immediately, before she even opened her eyes. Her first, reflexive breath upon waking brought with it a cacophany of smells, mostly familiar but bizarrely powerful. Stumbling from her room with bleary eyes, it took her a few moments to realize it was still night time. Her father slept deeply in the room behind her, and she could see the sliver of the waning moon behind him, through the window. That wasn’t all she could see, though. The house seemed awash in the moonlight, although she knew with such a small moon the night should be much darker. She could easily see down the presumably-gloomy hallway, down the darkened stairs and out into the lower level of the house.

Entering the Tendo’s dining room, she checked the time on the wall clock before groaning and heading to the kitchen. 4am. Not late enough to just call it an early morning, too late to call it a late night. And she could feel that her body wasn’t gonna let her just go back to bed. Her body felt pent-up, like she’d been lying around for days rather than hours. She had to bite down the urge to pace the small kitchen while she thought. Feeling increasingly agitated, she poured herself a glass of water and quietly exited the house to drink it outside.

The unusual clarity of her vision was undeniable out in the open. And the smells of the tendo garden, the feeling of the air on her skin, the sounds of animals moving in the yard and alley—the sensations of the world unmuffled by walls threatened to drown her. But no matter how uncomfortable she felt at the onslaught, she didn’t drown. Her breath caught, then evened as she worked to empty her mind and allow the sensations to pass through her instead of crashing against her. She sat in this impromptu meditation for more than half an hour, to her estimation. The moon had moved noticeably in the sky when she looked up, and distant sounds of water running in pipes heralded the waking of the very earliest risers.

Now that the entire world didn’t feel like it was trying to invade her mind, the tense flighty energy in her body was beginning to take precedence in her awareness. She wanted to run. When she heard the rustle of some rodent in the grass of the next house over, it took all of her self-control not to immediately catapult over the wall to try and catch it. Maybe it was the ungodly hour or the phase of the moon, but Ranma felt a sudden and profound need to chase something. So she did.

First that mouse in the next yard. She bounced a couple of times in place on the Tendo house’s engawa, before a full-strength leap took her to the roof. From there it was a running leap and a graceful vault into the next yard. In the moment of stillness before she began accelerating towards the ground, she tried to focus on the entire yard at once, searching for some giveaway to her unwitting playmate’s location. She didn’t catch anything, but when she landed in the grass she was sure there was an unrelated rustle on the other end of the yard. She stilled herself for a moment, hoping to bait out another clue, before her restlessness forced her to act. She sprinted across the grass, eyes wide and breath as slow as she could make it. There. Her friend had lost its nerve and was scurrying along the far wall looking for an escape. Ranma didn’t bother slowing as she reached the wall, absorbing her forward momentum with a gravity-defying crouch before letting herself fall into a sprinters crouch now facing along the wall toward her prey. With a last, powerful leap she flung herself outstretched parallel to the ground, gently tapping her quarry on the back as she flew past it into a fluid roll. Happy but not satisfied, she settled herself and quieted her breathing in wait for a new game to play.

* * *

Kasumi could tell there was something amiss. The door to the Saotomes’ room was open, and though she didn’t want to invade the guests’ privacy, she didn’t think Ranma was in his bed. In the kitchen there was a glass missing, and she eventually found it on the engawa, half full of water. She heaved a worried sigh before heading back inside to start breakfast. Either Ranma would be back by the time food was ready or someone would need to go find him, and either case called for a hearty meal.

* * *

Ranma was grinning and covered in dirt when she got back to the dojo. She’d gotten a bit further afield than she really intended and she hoped she had made it back before anyone worried. To her great relief, only Kasumi was downstairs when she entered. She gave the older girl a cheery ‘good morning’ as she passed on her way to the bath. Before she got in she spied the clock on the wall. 6:45. A perfectly acceptable time to start the day.

By the time he was washed and clothed Akane and the fathers were at the table, she doing her homework and they reading the paper. Kasumi roped him into helping set out rice and miso soup for everyone, which he was happy to do. Once all the places were set he sat down, laid his head on the table, and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

“Ya didn’t hafta let me sleep so long! Don’t be mad at me for making us late when you could just woken me up earlier” Ranma’s words were testy, but his face was pulled into an easy smile that softened the tone. The two of them were walking the path to school at an easy pace, putting the lie to the words of their argument. It was just banter this morning, neither of them in a bad enough mood to put any real heat into the words.

Ranma suddenly felt his ears perk up, as though pulled by invisible strings. His legs tensed, his balance shifting almost involuntarily to the balls of his feet as his body—apparently acting of its own accord—prepared to flee some yet-unclear danger. There was something in the wind, a spicy feeling on his palate. He didn’t recognize the smell of it, but he knew how it made him feel. Tense, agitated, slightly nauseous…and possessive? He could properly make out the sound that first alerted him now. A mechanical whizzing noise, like the spinning wheel of a bicycle. The wind suddenly shifted, and the curious smell was now too present to ignore.

_Shampoo_

He didn’t know when he’d jumped, but he suddenly found himself looking downwards at Akane as a bicycle landed directly where he’d previously been standing. Shampoo had a vicious smirk on her face for just the barest moment as her eyes tracked toward him, before she plastered on her customary earnest grin.

“Nihao!” she called out to him as he landed a few yards away. “Airen catching on! Usually I catch with bicycle. Is too too fun surprise”

“You’re gonna have to get better if you wanna catch me with that,”-- _apparently_ , he trailed off internally. Had that come out right? The echo of his own voice in his ears sounded…almost sultry. He glanced at Akane to see if she was mad at him but she still seemed surprised from the amazon girl’s sudden appearance. Looking back to Shampoo, she seemed to have caught the uncharacteristic undertone just fine and was looking at him with smouldering confidence. Another emotion he was unused to seeing in her normally uncomplicated expression. Her gaze on him felt physically hot, his pulse quickening and his blood coming to the surface of his skin.

“Suppose will need learn new trick then. Maybe airen give Shampoo lesson? Must know many tricks”

When had she gotten so close to him? With the way she was currently commanding his attention he was confident he couldn’t have missed a single move of her strong, supple legs. Had _he_ moved? His mouth opened, preparing to shut down her advances and get back to his normal day.

“What d’ya wanna learn?” he purred. He didn’t need to consult his ears to know that hadn’t come out the way he planned. _‘What would I have to teach you?’_ Or _‘Most of my techniques that aren’t from your great granny are sealed family secrets’_ would have been perfectly good responses, but apparently whatever devil had its claws in him today wasn’t gonna let up that easy.

Akane had apparently recovered enough from her earlier startlement to catch up to their strange conversation. Instead of shouting at him or distracting Shampoo or otherwise rescuing him, she looked icily at him before turning and continuing her walk towards school.

That seemed to dispell whatever fugue had come over him. He felt cold, and the nauseous feeling in his stomach was back, and the predatory look in Shampoo’s eyes was only making it worse. Taking advantage of the unexpected clarity, he decided to take a page from the family book and retreat. School wouldn’t miss him for one day.


End file.
